Seems to me song writing credits is the gold nugget in popular music. Album sales comes and goes; song writing credits stays. I kind of understand Taylor's and Wyman's cantankerousness here.
Patric Edenberg wrote Rednex's big hit "Cotton Eye Joe" - he recently said he made about 5 million Euro on that single hit during the years. I guess the same would go for "The Final Countdown" -
a massive hit for the Swedish 80's glam rock band Europe (they are going on a tour now to celebrate the 40th birthday of their hit song). I guess that hit kept them afloat during years of inactivity.
All this makes me understand the importance of getting the song writing credits right...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025-11-27 21:36 by Stoneage.

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Stoneage
Seems to me song writing credits is the gold nugget in popular music. Album sales comes and goes; song writing credits stays. I kind of understand Taylor's and Wyman's cantankerousness here.
Patric Edenberg wrote Rednex's big hit "Cotton Eye Joe" - he recently said he made about 5 million Euro on that single hit during the years. I guess the same would go for "The Final Countdown" -
a massive hit for the Swedish 80's glam rock band Europe (they are going on a tour now to celebrate the 40th birthday of their hit song). I guess that hit kept them afloat during years of inactivity.
All this makes me understand the importance of getting the song writing credits right...

actually the golden nugget is touring. Some years ago I read some statistic about what Bob Dylan makes with royalties compared to touring. The later made the lion's share by far.
(He played some 100 shows a year at that time, of course).

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Slewan
actually the golden nugget is touring. Some years ago I read some statistic about what Bob Dylan makes with royalties compared to touring. The later made the lion's share by far.
(He played some 100 shows a year at that time, of course)

Sure, but artists like Dylan or the Stones are exceptions to the rule. Few acts make it for more than half a decade. And few acts sell out stadiums or arenas. What struck me with this case is how much
money one hit generates through decades. If...you have the writing credits. In his case he could have retired at 25 and still maintained a high living standard throughout his whole life. For one song...

Mick and Keith make money while they do anything other than the Stones because of songwriting credits.

Artists that have sold their rights make zero future money - but they got a huge payout, more than they'd ever make, so whatever.

Bob Dylan (100% of his publishing catalogue to Universal Music Publishing) est. US$300-400 million. UPDATE: On January 24, 2022, Sony acquired his master recordings. That’s worth another ~US$200 million.

[www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com]


Billy Duffy of The Cult sold his rights from 1984-2001. No financial amount given. It's unlikely it was for millions of dollars like Dylan etc.

[www.musicbusinessworldwide.com]

Mick and Keith appear to not be interested in doing that - they simply don't need to. They make plenty just from touring but the amount of money they make just from classic rock radio in the US is a trickle of most likely a few million a year for each of them.

Just from radio.

Think about that. A lot of radio stations play Jumpin' Jack Flash, Paint It Black, Honky Tonk Women, Gimme Shelter, Street Fighting Man, Brown Sugar, Start Me Up, Miss You, Beast Of Burden, Shattered, Emotional Rescue, Waiting On A Friend, Satisfaction, LSTNT, Ruby Tuesday, SFTD, Heartbreaker, Wild Horses, Angie and Tumbling Dice - some every day, some every week, and very likely all of those and possibly more every month.

That adds up really quick.

No wonder the set lists generally consist of those songs.

Any time a movie with their songs in it is shown on an airplane... whatever ABKCO Music songs used in TV commercials... jukeboxes in bars that are tied in to ASCAP/BMI/etc... it just rolls in all the time.

As of 2025 songwriting credits that involve TV commercials and movie placement make more money than album/single streaming - which is a no brainer. People think Taylor Swift is making tons of money from streaming - she isn't. With exception to a few of her earlier albums she co-writes basically everything with two or three people.

The way songwriting has developed over the past ten years or so with some artists having as many as 8 or 9 people involved... not much money there.

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slewan

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Stoneage
Seems to me song writing credits is the gold nugget in popular music. Album sales comes and goes; song writing credits stays. I kind of understand Taylor's and Wyman's cantankerousness here.
Patric Edenberg wrote Rednex's big hit "Cotton Eye Joe" - he recently said he made about 5 million Euro on that single hit during the years. I guess the same would go for "The Final Countdown" -
a massive hit for the Swedish 80's glam rock band Europe (they are going on a tour now to celebrate the 40th birthday of their hit song). I guess that hit kept them afloat during years of inactivity.
All this makes me understand the importance of getting the song writing credits right...

actually the golden nugget is touring. Some years ago I read some statistic about what Bob Dylan makes with royalties compared to touring. The later made the lion's share by far.
(He played some 100 shows a year at that time, of course).

Sting earns 1 million dollars every year on royalties for the sample of 'Every Breath You Take' used for 'I'll Be Missing You'.

Noddy Holder of Slade stated he earns 800,000 British Pounds every year for the global radio rotation in December of his Christmas single 'Merry Xmas everybody'.

Robbie van Leeuwen earned 4 million Dutch Guilders -about 12 million dollars now- in 1970 for his hit single 'Venus'. He still earns 100,000 dollars annually for radio and TV play on this song alone.

So yeah, royalties still is a very good business.

Mathijs

Yep, and certainly now in Christmas time. If you strike commercially with a Christmas song it will be a moneymaker in December every year. For decades. Even if you left the business long ago.

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Stoneage
Yep, and certainly now in Christmas time. If you strike commercially with a Christmas song it will be a moneymaker in December every year. For decades. Even if you left the business long ago.

‘It’s Christmasss’ Noddy Holder

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Jumpin' Jack Flash








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Stoneage

Yep, and certainly now in Christmas time. If you strike commercially with a Christmas song it will be a moneymaker in December every year. For decades. Even if you left the business long ago.

The 'White Christmas' song, recorded by Bing Crosby in 1942. It was originally written by Irving Berlin for the 1942 musical film 'Holiday Inn'. Irving Berlin passed away in 1989, but the copyright lasts 70 years after the death of the creator. 'White Christmas' is one of the most covered songs.

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Stoneage

Seems to me song writing credits is the gold nugget in popular music.

If a song is covered several hundred times by other artists, it generates royalties for 70+ years for the song writing credits. No wonder then that companies like Sony Music Publishing or BMG Rights Management are massively interested in the music publishing rights.

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Mathijs

Robbie van Leeuwen earned 4 million Dutch Guilders -about 12 million dollars now- in 1970 for his hit single 'Venus'. He still earns 100,000 dollars annually for radio and TV play on this song alone.

So yeah, royalties still is a very good business.

Mathijs

Robbie van Leeuwen was the luckiest guy in the songwriting business and he knows it.

Do any of the “inspired by” type credits bring in anything after the fact?

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snoopy2
Do any of the “inspired by” type credits bring in anything after the fact?

Black's Law Dictionary defines "inspired by" as "a brazen admission of guilt, a taunting power play, launched safely in the knowledge that the thief has overwhelming real-world leverage over the victim, who will never dare to seek justice."